As the cyclone hovered off the coast a week ago, I was careful with my device usage and kept the battery in each one fully charged.

I unplugged my computer because I’m of an age where as a child I was regularly told to unplug things when potential power surges might happen. It’s now deeply ingrained despite everything now being plugged into surge protected power boards and fuse boxes at home having much better safety switches ready to trip and protect everything.  

As a result of being cautious I spent very little time online. I checked the relevant warnings but didn’t doom scroll the news sites. I caught up on my rss feeds but didn’t scroll Mastodon or Bluesky endlessly. I didn’t open a browser to go down some rabbit hole of clicks. I did turn the Mac on and indulge in a longish game of Civilisation VI when things settled down.

I kept going all this week with the same approach, even though the cyclone had cleared and I returned to the office rather than WFH.

The news was still dominated by post cyclone clean up activity or reporting on the orange clown and his musky sidekick as the US slowly spirals down the drain. I don’t need a daily update on the level of madness.

It has been quite a good little break from online. I’m not going to call it a digital detox because it’s a ridiculously overused and overblown term.

I think it’s healthy to just step away from the constant barrage of news and information. I should do it more regularly and perhaps not wait for a tropical cyclone to be descending.